


She chose to.

by HeyFinlee



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Childhood Friends, Coming of Age, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, I do want to mention there is a little bit where Adam is quite forceful but its brief, Partying, they grOW UP TOGETHER!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:21:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24195046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyFinlee/pseuds/HeyFinlee
Summary: Yang and Blake meet for the first time at 11. The two become known for being inseparable. In the beginning teachers try to separate them but Yang stands proudly with Blake’s hand in hers. “I don’t want to!” She’d always say, “and my mommy says if you don’t want something you should always tell the person so they know! So please, I don’t want to split up!” It worked. Yang always was a charmer.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Kudos: 77





	She chose to.

It begins in much the same way as it ends- at a party. Blake finds herself curled up behind a couch, lost in a book. It’s not that she’s antisocial, just that she thinks her book is better company than the adults that surround her, pestering her about how excited she must be to start at a new school and meet new people. 

Blake likes school and loves learning, she craves to understand the world around her, but she’s 10 and that’s not something people like to hear from her. Her face is still chubby so no one takes her seriously when she says things like, ‘Math is my favourite subject,’ cooing at her novels and asking if there are pictures. To avoid it all, she’d snuck away to an empty corner of an even emptier room. 

Blake’s surprised, then, when a girl appears in front of her. “I’m hiding.” Is all she says, her hand coming up to her mouth to make a shhh symbol. Blake nods in response, a little annoyed to be disrupted by the blonde girl. She turns back to her book a little clumsily, hands restlessly toying with one of the corners.

She’s made it just half a page further when she gives up on reading. The girl across from her wont stop moving, and suddenly her hiding spot behind the couch is no easier to read in than the party room downstairs. “Um?” Is all Blake manages, staring. The girl shushes her again and Blake can’t help but smile at her pink, chipping nails. The girl smiles back.

The door slams open, scaring them both. Blake leaps to her feet with a start, rubber-toed shoes scuffing on the ground as she stands. “Uh- Hi!” Says the intruder, shorter than Blake but with the same dark hair. “Have you seen my sister- Yang? About yea high?” she asks, gesturing above herself, “Blonde hair, loud, annoying?” 

“Uh?” Is Blake’s only response. The smaller girl huffs and leaves, forgetting to close the door behind her. Blake tumbles back down letting out a sigh of relief.

“Thanks for the cover!” All smiles and freckles, the blonde pours forward taking Blake’s hand in her own and shaking. “I’m Yang, Yang Xiao Long!”

“I’m, uh,” Blake says, quietly, “Blake.”

(“That’s not fair,” Ruby complains on the ride home, “You had Blake lie for you! That’s not fair!”

“I never told her to lie. She chose to.”)

Blake and Yang keep ending up in the same places after that. Yang turns up in Blake’s first class at her new school, across from her at the cafeteria, and on the same bus ride home. 

“Are you following me or something?” Blake asks, amused, as they tuck into the only open seat left in the bus. 

“ ‘course not!” Yang grins cheekily, stuffing her school books into her backpack, “My house is the third stop. Right by the corner store.” 

Blake and Yang become known, quickly, for being inseparable. In the beginning teachers try to seperate them but Yang stands proudly with Blake’s hand in hers. “I don’t want to!” She’d always say, “and my mommy says if you don’t want something you should always tell the person so they know! So please, I don’t want to split up!” It worked. Yang always was a charmer. 

For her 11th birthday, Blake gets a My Little Pony and a bunch of new bras. 

“I don’t want these!” She complains to Yang, rolling over so her head is hanging upside-down off the bed. She’d rushed upstairs to her room in a huff dumping her new things on the floor in the process.

Yang laughs at her from where she’s sitting on the wooden floor, purple pony in hand. “I dunno Blake, you can comb this pony’s hair, seems just like the ideal present for you.” Yang’s smile breaks into a full grin featuring the gap where her tooth would be if she hadn’t lost it when Adam tripped her last week. “Who am I kidding, this thing sucks. I brought some chocolate, you want one?”

“I don’t want to grow up,” Blake murmurs around a chocolate bar later that day, “What do grown ups even do? They have to like, date boys, and have boobs, and talk about taxes. I don’t get it.” 

“Me neither, Blakey, me neither.” 

As it turns out, it doesn’t matter much if the pair were ready. They both fill out over the next summer, and Yang joins the soccer team the next year. “I’m 12 now, Blake, I want to like, do stuff. Also Mom says it will be good to get all my energy out.” Blake comes along to each practice for the next two years, book in hand and watching from the benches, turning into the unofficial water-girl. By time Blake turns 15, she knows all the girls on the team and what their favourite post-match drinks are. She catches her eyes lingering a little too much on Yang’s shoulders, her legs, her stomach. 

“Blake!” Yang yells, drenched in sweat and on her knees as she celebrates a goal. “Heck yeah! Did you see that? That one was for you!” 

Blake stops coming to soccer matches.

(“Why does Blake never catch our bus anymore?” Ruby asks one especially hot school day, “Did you have a fight and tell her to stop coming?”

“No, Ruby,” Yang sighs, fidgeting, “I never told her to stop coming. She chose to.”)

She’s not sure why looking at Yang makes her stomach turn like it does. She does know the best way to make it stop happening is to stop looking at Yang. So she avoids her, moves to a different lit class, and turns around when she sees Yang in the hallway. It hurts them both, and she can see it in Yang’s face across the cafeteria. ‘At least’, Blake reasons, ‘I can distinguish pain. It’s better than looking at her and not knowing what I feel.’ 

With no Yang and no soccer club, Blake finds herself wasting a lot of time inside. She engroses herself in books, and when her parents let her, TV. Blake wishes she could visit the places she reads about, dreams about being whisked away to a far away castle. 

Late one night, when her parents are both asleep, she finds herself watching a cheesy movie about two girls who rob banks. “Oh.” She whimpers, nauseous, watching the two female leads kiss. Suddenly, it all made sense. 

Blake’s sixteenth birthday passes without much consequence. She feels old, much older than she is, like she’d spent a million lives on this earth before. Worn down and tired, and so so afraid, she finds solace in writing music. She ‘borrows’ her dad’s old guitar from the garage, spends hours writing melodies and lyrics. Day after day Blake spills her feelings onto refill pages. 

One day, in the middle of winter and surrounded by snow, Blake finds herself playing music on the steps behind the gym. Her red scarf is wrapped tightly around her neck as she sits cross-legged, humming a tune. 

“We'll reclaim our destiny, set our future free..” she sings quietly, “set our future free- And then what!” 

“How about and we'll rise above the darkness?” Blake jumps on the spot, seeing a masculine figure standing in the entryway of the gym. “Ever thought of joining a band?”

Adam Taurus, it turns out isn’t half that bad. She knows he has a bad wrap but for the first half a year she knows him he does nothing but help her. He teaches Blake how to stand tall in the face of adversity. Together, with Ilia, they form the White Fang. It’s smooth sailing for those first few months, until suddenly it’s not.

Adam Taurus, it turns out, is an absolute sleazebag. “Just smile for me, Blakey.” He says one day, the pet name sounding dirty coming from his mouth. “We got a gig for next week. See you there.” He winks and leers, lets himself linger just a little too long. Ilia sees it with a frown in her eyes, but never says anything. Conveniently, Adam forgets her birthday is next weekend too.

She goes along anyway, plays the electric guitar she got for her birthday and sings her heart out. As uncomfortable as Adam makes her now, nothing makes her feel as good as the rush of an excited crowd- even if it’s just drunk teenagers at a house party. 

Once they finish their set, Adam brings them beers. “Bottoms up!” He says, downing most of his drink in one go and spilling beer on his dress shirt. “Ilia, I’ve already finished my drink, go get me another one would you?” 

Ilia frowns, looks at Blake and shrugs. She steps away leaving the two alone in the crowded room. Blake hides her face behind her cup, taking the smallest sips she can manage.

“Blakey,” Adam smiles, stepping into her space, backing her up against the wall. “You were really good up there today, those jeans fit you really well. I love being behind you on the drums.”

“Adam could you back up?” Blake tries. She crosses her arms to try and get some distance between them.

Adam just laughs, leaning forward. His hands come to rest on her hips, tight grip digging into her skin. “Come on, Blake. I know you want this.” 

“Adam-” Is all she manages squeezing her eyes shut. There’s a moment where she’s so hopelessly sure nothing could stop him, until the pressure of his hands releases from her hips.

“When a girl says back up, back up, asshole!” She hears, and soft hands slip into hers. “We’re going outside, okay Blake?” 

“Yang?” she sobs out. She’s led out the door and sat down on the step. They sit together for who knows how long, in the cold night air. 

“I miss you.” Yang says, running her hand along Blakes knuckles.

Breathing in and exhaling, Blake brings Yang’s hand up to her mouth and kisses it. “I miss you, too.” 

(“Yang. I can’t believe you let Blake beat you to proposing” Ruby says, years from that night, “Did you like, tell her you wanted her to or something?”

“Yeah, Ruby,” Yang huffs, smiling wide, “I told her I wanted to spend my life with her. And you know what? She chose to.”)


End file.
